HOPE - Helping Our Peninsula's Environment

831/ 624-6500 www.1hope.org

July 30, 2003

We respectfully request that you seriously consider our suggestions here.

Monterey Peninsula gets 70% of its drinking water from the Carmel River. Carmel River provides vital habitat for two species on the Federal Endangered Species List -- the Southern Steelhead and Mark Twain's celebrated California red-legged frog.

There are four golf courses directly adjacent to the Carmel River and two more upstream from it. Each golf course uses thousands of pounds of pesticides and tens of thousands of pounds of fertilizers every year. There are only three programs which potentially collect pesticide pollution data for the Carmel River. None of these programs test for the specific pesticides used on the golf courses adjacent to our drinking water source.

1. Urban Watch (First Flush) - Does test for one pesticide, but does not test water bodies outside of cities -- leaving the Salinas the Carmel rivers untested.

2. Snapshot Day -- Does not test for pesticides.

3.CCAMP -- Does not test for the specific pesticides used by golf courses in the Carmel river watershed.

• We strongly request that the Sanctuary Advisory Council expand the existing testing programs to include pesticide testing using Immunoassay methods on the Carmel and Salinas Rivers.

Oil Spill Prevention Alternative Ignored By Staff

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Our suggestion of how use existing technology to significantly prevent and minimize oil tanker spill impacts (Oil Tanker-Liners as opposed to double hulls) does not appear in the text of the document, probably as a result of its misplacement in the original transcription of comments and lack of any explanation about it. (Article attached. If missing see www.1hope.org/oiliner.htm)

• We strongly request that the Sanctuary Advisory Council specifically agendize, discuss and consider the subject of Oil Tanker-Liners and other oil spill prevention technologies.

There is no Index! This makes it nearly impossible for computer users or readers to determine if the issues they raised are included in the document. There are software programs available to make indexing easy and fast.

• Please include an index.

• We strongly support Activity 12.5: "Testify at Local Hearings on Issues Affecting the MBNMS" and strongly urge staff involvement in the Monterey County General Plan and Pacific Grove Council meetings Re: sewage spills. However, probably more important is that --

We strongly urge staff provide analysis by written comments on each of the General Plans that affect the Sanctuary (i.e. Monterey County, Monterey City, Seaside, Pacific Grove, and Salinas) and provide a copy of the 1999 Water Quality Protection Plan in their comments. Since the California Environmental Quality Act requires the implementation of all feasible mitigation for potentially significant environmental impacts it is essentially mandatory that the WQPP programs will be included in the General Plans.

While HOPE has many other serious concerns, we hope you'll assign the ones above the highest priority.

Thank you - with all due respect,

David Dilworth, Executive Director

PS The title numbers are mismatched.

Section "5" in the CD table of contents has the heading of "VI" in the text.

Section "6" in the CD table of contents has the heading of "V" in the text.

While the paper version may not be as confusing, most people will be using the computer CD-ROM. This confusion causing error makes it more difficult and time-consuming for the public to comment.